Omaha daily bee., 1887-09-20
THEY WORKED HARD.
Rich New Workers Who Have HAD TO
WORK for Their Living.

Rich New Workers who Have HAD TO
"Work for Their Living.
New York Sunday Mercury. Talking
about labor" and capital" the other
day Everybody talks about labor" and
capital" now a.days), 9 friend Of NINE
made the forcible remark that every
man who is worth q fig has been or Is
both lab0rer and capitalist; that is, he
does or has done in his time some down.
right work, and has acquired by doing it
more or less money"
This idea of people being both labor
ers and capitalists impressed me, es-
pecially as within the last thirty years 1
have come across in New York hundreds
of prominent examples of its truth.
+. Is. Thurber, for example, the mill
ionaire grocer, whose wife out of the
fulness of her purse and heart Imported,
opera, was laborer of the lowest grade
once, and not so very long ago. He
hoed potatoes for q living near Delhi
somewhere, / believe. Roswell p.
Flower, who Is ranked among the ten
millionaifes. aud who has political aspi-
ratiOns, used TO do chores on farm in
Jefferson county. The farm was IN
wretched condition and Roswell's s chores
were of the hardest possible kind. John
10 whom New Workers are indebted for
Glen Island, used to be poor farmers
boy, and had to work eighteen
hours day for his board and clothes
and to do his own washing. Peter
Cooper, the best man New York has
ever fostered, the philan:hrOpist to
whose gentle and glorious memory
York in hard luck. He had come to the
great city on foot, tramping it from
Peekskill, and he was glad to get an en-
ployer who paid him fifty cents week
land board, " for work from six in the
morning till ten at night. Cyrus w.
Field trudged into New York one day
from Berkshire and got job from A. t.
Stewart (who was himself then poor,
emerging from poverty, and had been
nine" shop, for $2 a week. Cyrus was
Stewards Office boy and earned his 80.
George Law used to carry tine hod in
Troy for a man whom he years later hired
to superntend a gang of men at High
Bridge. Jay Gould owns whole railroads.
States and Legislatures now, but not SO
many years ago he blew the bellows for a
Roxbury blacksmith; Little Jay was a
good blower" He blew all he got
been short of wind" ever since. The
Harper Brothers came TO town
with good constitutions, two bum
dies containing all the clothes
they had. and about $50. They paid
SEQ out of this to boss rs u bonus to
learn trade, and they wor ked day and
night till they had mastered it. Russell
Sage, who has such convenient memory
| as well as such colossal bank account,
worked six days and six nights as Il
grocer boy up in Oneida county
William Il. Dodge began life on nothing
but his labor. Dan Drew began life at
the plow up in Putnam county. The
late John Kelly worked hard as Il MA
sons apprentice. Bill Tweed made
chars for living at first, made them
well and would have done better had he
in his "laborng' days printers s
| devil"
Rufus T. Busch taught school IN winter
| and did farm work IN summer to keep
| body and soul together. Thomas A.
| Edison, the wonderful inventor, who
| has made himself and thousands of
| others rich by his inventions, used to
bawl out newspapers for, livelihood.
So did John Hoey, who now owns
| pointed summe. resort in the world
conceded by all travellers to be such.
John Roach labored for years at a dollar
day and was mighty glad to get his
| dollar; IN fact, he didn't always get it.
| Horace Greeley began at the lowest round
of the newspaper ladder. The man
was living lately who gave James Gordon
man printer. Robert Bonner, who has
lived to own the finest horses in the
world, lived at first on So week and la
bored all week for the 50. Cornelius
| Vanderbilt, whose son left behind him
over $aOO,0OO,0O0 used to transport
passengers from Staten Island
,gSSsD New osnts Yere in Hs b9at
in his boat about fifteen hours of the
twenty-four, working all the time. John
Jacob Astor, who endowed New YORK
with its finest library, used to peddle furs
and sell pianos. Andrew V. Stout used
to live on old Pump street. as Cana
street was once called, and had. as boy
to support his mother and brothers and
sisters by his labor. 1t was big contract
for Il small boy, but he bossed the job
lit and the president of the
shoe and leather bank. Hoe, to whom
civilization is indebted for its printing
press, came to New York penniless anC
applied to Grant Thornburn, the seeds
man, for his first job. Darling, one O
the .propretors of the Fifth Avenue
hotel, used to work IN the kitchen
| IOWeTS, WHO IIlit'ie u iulluOu III Iuc NTtHl
Central hotel, commenced life as a hal
hoy. Governor Morgan paid his frs
visit to New York as an assistant" clerk
buying goods for a country store. Cor
den W. Burnham, to whom Central parl
is indebted for one of its finest orna
ments, blacked, boots to begin with
Paran Stevens whose widow owns tn,
Victoria hotel and who started the Fiftl
Avenue. began his career rs a hostler
Demas Barnes. VINO bought the site of th'
old Park theater, landed one afternoon il
New York at the foot of Canal stree
with only five cents IN the world. HI
got job ere night, For twenty years 1t
worked ten hours a day.
could keep on citing other cases o
New York capitalists who were onc
laborers, or laborers who have becom
New York capitalists. But certainly
have abundantlv illustrated the fact tina
if not every, at least many men of not
have been both 'laborers and capital